May 26, 2014

Lighting architect Rogier van der Heide offers a beautiful new way to look at the world -- by paying attention to light (and to darkness). Examples from classic buildings illustrate a deeply thought-out vision of the play of light around us. (Filmed at TEDxAmsterdam.)

May 23, 2014

According to Trygve Faste, it was a series of coincidences and happenstance that led him to the creation of his geometric neon-painted protostructures and forms that are popping off the walls at One Grand Gallery until the end of May. But it seems that his progression and trajectory as an artist started a long time ago, and has been consistently cultivated and advanced for the past several years.

Faste drew a lot as a kid. When he got to college, he double-majored in computer science and art, thinking the former would be more useful, but in the end, realized both were pertinent in realizing his life calling.

As a professional designer, Faste has designed an eclectic array of objects, ranging from toys to luxury hotel fountains. He has an MFA in painting from Cranbook Academy of Art and is currently a professor of design at the University of Oregon.

What Faste enjoys most is the studio: it's the place where he can contemplate his fascination with how humans manipulate the natural world to serve our purposes.

Faste's investigation began on large rectangular canvases with painted representational landscapes of human-constructed environments. His methods have since evolved into the abstract. Stripping out all natural elements except for the sky, left Faste focusing solely on objects in the two- and three- dimension.

OG: What do you call your pieces?TF: I have been calling them protoforms. It is a word that I made up and is based on the ideas of a prototype. Proto’ being something early or primitive that is still in the process of evolving and ‘form’ because the paintings are slightly dimensional. I called the pieces that have windows cut through the canvas protostructures because they reveal more of the underlying structure. Those pieces are really more about the idea of construction and how it relates to painting on canvas.

OG: What's the origin of your name?TF: Half of my family is Norwegian. My parents wanted to find a name that would speak to that heritage. I came across the meaning many years later when I was researching names for my daughter. I think it means trustworthy or true.

OG: How do “protoforms” reflect what you see around us? TF: Really it's a distillation of cultural various ‘memes’ -- things that materialize and become really popular at a given moment in time. I'm always trying to figure out what design tropes might be current.

OG: Where do the designs and colors come from? TF: A lot of the shapes come from simplified objects that I observe, so that might be: sneakers, super cars or some consumer product. And they could really come from anywhere, but mostly human- created, like different science fiction movies and pop culture in general. I’m curious how to capture the ideas and feelings of our culture's objects, so much of which embody ideas of ‘the futuristic’, or ‘quality’, or other traits that just make things seem covetable.The colors-- I do think of each painting as having a specific color scheme. I'll limit each painting to a specific pallet. Normally they're borrowed from things I've seen that interest me-- like a car's special paint job or architecture, or clothing colors that happen to be in vogue.

OG: How would you compare your artwork-- made by and to reflect modern means-- to other art movements in history? TF: There's always been a lot of different art historical references that I am interested in. There was the precisionist movement in the industrial era where they were painting really crisp, clean images of industrial technology. I have been thinking about the slightly more mechanized production of my paintings.

There is a literal connection to manufacturing as well as just a reference connection in the way I make the canvases. I laser cut the forms, plan them on the computer and use an archival digital printer to print the canvas. For larger paintings, I use airbrush.

I also love the work of the Hudson River School of painters. The sense of atmosphere and space in the paintings is wonderful.

My work also references pop art a lot. If you think about Andy Warhol, he called his studio, 'The Factory.' With silkscreens paintings, he had sort of a production method, so there’s definitely ideas carrying over from that.

OG: How do you build your canvases? TF: I started building paper models to figure out what shapes I like. Once I got the hang of it and the types of shapes I was interested in-- I didn’t have to make more models. Typically, I sketch out the shape of canvas I want. Then I will go into a computer modeling program. Right now I am using a program called Rhinoceros. Basically I model the canvas stretcher in the computer, which gives me a plan for how to make the structure. I actually laser cut the side pieces and assemble them. This ensures the angles are correct.

OG: How many 'protoforms' have you made? TF: Probably around 45 or 50. Some of them are smaller. Some of them, when I started out, I was calling them different things. At first, I was calling them 'shards.' At one point I called three of them 'turbo forms' because they looked really fast.

OG: What's next? TF: These protostructure paintings are going to be new to me for this show. I'll see how those work out, how enjoyable and exciting they are to make. And then also the paintings. I have focused the paintings for this show, so they are one canvas shape instead of constructions made by attaching multiple canvases. It has allowed more room for me to actually paint and explore the surface and less worrying about the different structures coming together. It is always hard to predict ahead of time how they really differ from the previous paintings, but so far I am really liking working on them. I am still fiddling with various ways to make them.

I am also experimenting with some other furniture design projects and collaborating on some ceramic projects with my wife, so those are always really exciting.

I foresee maybe some more three-dimensional work coming along.

ILLUSIVE STRUCTURES by TRYGVE FASTE is currently on display at One Grand Gallery through May 30, 2014

May 19, 2014

Architecture can bring people together, or divide them -- witness the skyscraper, costly, inefficient, and only serving small portions of the community. At TEDxPortofSpain, Mark Raymond encourages city governments to let go of their old notions of success and consider the balance of environment, economy, and society to design cities for social change. (Filmed at TEDxPortofSpain.)

Mark Raymond’s work as an architect in Trinidad and Tobago is founded on the belief that thoughtfully designed cities can foster sustainability and inclusiveness throughout a society.

May 18, 2014

J. MAYER H. und Partner, Architekten has been named the winner of the invited competition for Volt Berlin, a new concept for a location for shopping and urban experience near Berlin's Alexanderplatz. The experience cluster is a fusion concept combining a multi-brand store, various experiential offerings, events, and a hotel, and is directed towards adventurous visitors with a focus on a smart urban lifestyle. The large urban building complex is organized according to its various usages in several smaller boxes that are placed in an uneven grid. One particularly striking aspect of the design is the luminous horizontal glazed line that runs like a tension fissure all the way through the building. This intermediate space, located at the level of the train viaduct, will host the center's most important attractions: indoor-skydiving and a surf wave. This energy line will exude into the urban space around the center, while Berlin and the immediate area around Alexanderplatz will always be present as a location and a backdrop.

May 12, 2014

Architect Kate Orff sees the oyster as an agent of urban change. Bundled into beds and sunk into city rivers, oysters slurp up pollution and make legendarily dirty waters clean -- thus driving even more innovation in "oyster-tecture." Orff shares her vision for an urban landscape that links nature and humanity for mutual benefit.

Kate Orff asks us to rethink “landscape”—to use urban greenspaces and blue spaces in fresh ways to mediate between humankind and nature.

May 5, 2014

How do you make a great public space inside a not-so-great building? Liz Diller shares the story of creating a welcoming, lighthearted (even, dare we say it, sexy) addition to the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC. (From The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest-curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell.)

Liz Diller and her maverick firm DS+R bring a groundbreaking approach to big and small projects in architecture, urban design and art -- playing with new materials, tampering with space and spectacle in ways that make you look twice.